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Savannah civil rights icon and preservationist W.W. Law died in 2002 in the home he bought for his mother in the 1950s.

Over the years, wear and tear from harboring his collection of documents, books, newspapers and artwork documenting the history of the civil rights movement took its toll on the house’s foundation before Historic Savannah Foundation and W.W. Law Foundation stepped in to save the property from collapse last year.

On Saturday, Historic Savannah Foundation volunteers will flock to the 710 W. Victory Dr. property and apply a fresh coat of paint to the facade, said foundation president/CEO Daniel Carey.

“It’s all cosmetic,” Carey said, adding that some 40 volunteers will work on the project in two shifts.

Also that day, the foundation will present its historic marker — which will later be affixed to the bungalow — to Remer Pendergraph, Law’s longtime friend and administrator of his estate, Carey said.

Pendergraph also is a Law Foundation founder and board chairman and owner of the house.

The marker will identify the structure as “Home of W.W. Law, civil rights leader and preservationist, circa 1936,” Carey said.

The work follows more than $20,000 the historic foundation has put into shoring up the structure’s foundation over several months to what Carey called a “safe and sound” level.

Meanwhile Col. George Bowen, a Law Foundation board member and donor, applauded the effort to save the Law legacy.

“The loss of his documents and house would be a tragic loss to the community — the entire community,” Bowen said. “I’m looking forward to the day when they do make it an official (historic) site.”

The house, part of the Cuyler-Brownville Historic District, was named in October to the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2012 Places in Peril list.

Bowen also said the foundation hopes to start a capital campaign in July to raise funds for the continued preservation of Law’s legacy.

Bowen headed efforts to raise funds for a match grant with the historic foundation to preserve the home last fall.

The Law Foundation’s $5,000 pledge brought in $5,000 each from Carey’s foundation; the 1772 Foundation, a Connecticut-based private philanthropic group, and the Savannah Community Foundation toward the work.

Law bought the house for his mother, Geneva Wallace Law, in 1950 after he graduated from what is now Savannah State University.

He died in the house July 29, 2002.

In the years between, he was president of the Savannah Branch, NAACP for 25 years, and later a historic preservationist.

IF YOU GO

If you wish to volunteers for the May 5 painting project, contact the Savannah Historic Foundation at 912-233-7787 to pre-register. Workers will be needed between